Like a Moth to a Flame
by Red-Bedroom
Summary: Lucas and Peyton at the beginning of S5.
1. Chapter 1

This is my very first attempt at writing anything, so please be kind. Also constructive criticism is welcomed! I'm hoping with each story it will only get better.

Lucas and Peyton S5. This first chapter is short, but I promise the next one will be much longer.

* * *

He sits at his work desk, his eyes boring into the top drawer of the wooden dresser on the other side of the room. The cursor of his laptop blinks over an empty white page, taunting him. No matter how hard he tries, he can't will his mind to focus, to spill out those beautiful words that filled the pages of his first book so easily.

He sighs and stands from the desk chair, stretching his arms up over his head and running his hand through his short blond locks, ready for a break from feigning concentration when all he can really think of is soft, blonde curls and green eyes. He blinks his eyelids shut hard and gently shakes his head hoping to reset his train of thought.

"Hey, you. How's the writing going?" Lindsay peeks her head around the door frame and smiles brightly at him. She feels like a nag for asking him the same question over and over again. It's becoming harder and harder for her to balance the line between editor and girlfriend to Lucas Scott.

"Well…I'm mulling a few interesting ideas over in my head," he raises his eyebrows and smiles hoping that she won't detect the lie he just told. He feels guilty, and wishes he could talk to her about his writers block. He knows that the girlfriend part of her would be understanding and encouraging, but it's the pressured editor side of her that he fears.

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna go meet Haley for lunch, do you want to take a break and come with me?"

"Uh, no actually. I think I'll keep at it for awhile longer, but try and have fun without me, okay?" he breathes a very subtle, and undetected sigh of relief at having the house to himself for a few hours and immediately wishes he didn't feel that way.

"I'll try my best," she walks into the room from her place just outside the door and breezes over, sliding her arms around his neck and giving him a quick peck on the lips. "See you in a bit. Maybe when I get back they'll be something to edit on that page." He knew she meant it lightheartedly but it still stung a bit, and he let out a low chuckle to cover.

He watched her as she walked away, and took note of how beautiful she was as she turned and flashed him a smile, a sparkle in her piercing blue eyes, before she disappeared from the room. In that moment a breeze blew in from the open window next to his bed, causing a picture frame to tip over from the top of dresser that had drawn his attention earlier. He jerked his head in that direction, startled, and his eyes fell on that drawer once more as he walked towards it.

He extended both of his hands and pulled the drawer open towards him, reaching in and pulling out a small black box. He didn't even have to fish around for it, its location committed to memory. He pulled a delicate ring from its place in the box, shifting it between his index finger and his thumb watching the light dance around in its sparkling stone.

His mind begins to wander, envisioning that diamond on her perfect, slender finger. He closes his eyes, imagining looking up into her glistening, green eyes as tears begin to well above the rims of her lower lids. "Yes, baby, yes. I'll marry you. God, I love you." She reaches out both of her hands and pulls his face towards hers, forcefully meshing their lips together as if she cannot bring him close enough to her. Then the kiss becomes slower, and gentler. Lips parting and moving together, as he pulls her up from where she's sitting and walks backwards guiding her towards the bed...

His eyes snap open and he curses the cruelty of his imagination for teasing him with what should be a beautiful memory, but is only a daydream. He places the ring back into its box, and the box back into the place it's been for the better part of the last three years. Ever since the night she said "someday" instead of "yes".

He takes a deep breath, and looks over at the basketball sitting on the shelf against the wall. He needs a distraction, something to keep his mind from traveling where it shouldn't. The court alongside the river has always brought him comfort, and playing the game that he's loved since he was a boy has always helped him heal. So he picks up the ball and heads out the back door with one destination in mind.

* * *

Her eyes close for just a moment and she feels the autumn air all around her, she lets the music playing fill her mind and block out everything else. She's back home, back in Tree Hill and she's still not sure what she's hoping to find.

She travels down the familiar streets in her black Mercury Comet, with the top down despite the chilly October air. It's been far too long since she's done this and she won't let a shiver or two take this moment away.

Her blond, curly hair is blowing around atop her bopping head, and her stiletto clad foot is pressed firmly against the gas pedal. The last beats sound on the final track of the CD that's playing, and she lifts a hand from it's place on the steering wheel to eject the disc. Her searching glance falls upon the next mix she has waiting on the passenger seat, and as she reaches for it the wind changes direction and a strong gust blows in and sweeps the shiny disc onto the floor of the Comet.

"Shit!" she curses. After looking around for pedestrians or other cars on the deserted street, she quickly bends down to retrieve her mix. Her hand sweeps down and grabs the CD and her eyes glance back up to the road where a tall figure is crossing the street in front of her dribbling a basketball.

Startled, she takes the foot that's firmly on the gas and slams it against the brake pedal, stopping the vehicle with a loud screech only a few inches from the man's feet. He looks up at the same time she does, and he holds his ball in his hands as they lock eyes and blue and green meet for a few moments that feel like a lifetime. A memory from long ago floods her mind, and she feels like she's sixteen years old again.

"Peyton?"


	2. Chapter 2

She sat frozen behind the wheel, her heart thumping and her mind racing. She couldn't believe it was actually him standing there in front of her again, exactly the same as the first moment all those years ago. That first moment when he used those incredible blue eyes to look right into her soul. And he was doing it all over again.

"Peyton?" he repeated himself.

He blinked a few times, praying that she'd still be there in front of him each time his eyes opened again.

She finally managed to steady her breathing and find her voice. Though she couldn't help stammering a bit "Oh, oh my god...Lucas. I, I'm so sorry…are...are you okay?"

In all the situations she had imagined seeing him again in, this was definitely not anywhere on her list - not that she was complaining. He looked better than she remembered, his cropped, sandy blond hair perfectly styled, and his white t-shirt clinging to him in all of her favorite places. There was a strong breeze blowing his dark blue windbreakers against his body and she could make out every curvature of his lower half. As her eyes raked over him, she saw him squint slightly at her, as if he knew that she was admiring him.

She wasn't sure if she should get out of the car or not, she wasn't really sure how she was supposed to behave around him. As she moved her hand to reach for the door handle, Lucas set his ball down in the road and took a few steps towards the drivers' side of the car and she froze.

He finally made his way to her door and blinked at her again, searching, as if he was trying to find the perfect words for that moment. He leaned down and rested both of his hands against the top of the car door. He looked down at her, and the sun was shining on her golden colored curls. She looked like an angel, her large, green eyes looking up at him. Just then an unruly curled lock escaped from its place tucked behind her ear and he fought the urge to reach out and brush it back.

"Ya know, one of these days you're actually going to hit me." One side of his mouth turned upward into a perfectly charming half smirk and her heart melted immediately and she smiled. A flawless Peyton Sawyer smile, and all of a sudden all of the memories of the past three years came rushing back to him and the moment was gone. He felt his heart break all over again and his defenses went up.

"What are you doing here, Peyton?", his brow furrowed "What are you doing back in Tree Hill?"

She felt his demeanor shift, and her smile disappeared. "Oh, well…I, uh...", she considered for a moment what the right answer would be, before she opted for the truth. "I quit my job in L.A., and to be honest...I felt a little lost." She frowned slightly at letting herself seem vulnerable.

"Oh."

He'd never felt so confused about how to react to someone in his life. He wanted to run away from her and take her in his arms, all at the same time.

Just then a car pulled up behind the Comet, and Peyton wasn't sure what to do. She definitely didn't want to drive away from him, but she wasn't getting the impression that he wanted to stay and chat.

"Well, uh. I guess I'll be seeing you around, right?" she smiled at her unintentional use of the phrase that was such a big part of their history.

"Yeah…definitely", he knew she had to pull away, as the driver behind her had a look on her face that was growing increasingly impatient, but he was still leaning against the car. He somehow managed to pull his gaze away from her and stood upright again. She watched him as he turned and moved to retrieve his ball from the road in front of the Comet. As he bent down to pick up the ball, the chill in the air certainly wasn't a problem for her anymore as she felt her cheeks warm and her stomach flutter.

"Sorry, I nearly killed you…again", she shouted out to him and he smiled as he turned away and set off dribbling his ball, and breaking into a jog down the street.

She stared after him, watching the boy who was now very much a man, disappear down the street. The car behind her let out a short blast of its horn, pulling her out of her daze. She slowly pressed on the accelerator, fighting the urge to throw the woman behind her a one-fingered greeting, and subconsciously made note of this spot where they had made a new memory to go with the many others in the small North Carolina town.

Yeah, it was exactly as she had feared. Peyton Sawyer was without a doubt still very much in love with Lucas Scott.

* * *

"Brooke Penelope Davis!" Peyton shouted across the airport terminal when she spotted a perfectly coiffed head full of familiar, shiny chestnut hair.

Brooke immediately looked in her best friend's direction, her perfectly made up face beaming with a wide smile.

"P. Sawyer!" she quickened her pace, as much as her Prada boot heels would allow, pulling her Louis Vuitton luggage behind her. The two women maneuvered their way through the other people in the airport terminal finally finding each other and wrapping their arms around one another tightly.

"I missed you, Brooke Davis." Peyton murmured into the brunette's ear warmly "Thanks for coming."

"I missed you too, best friend." Brooke pulled back and placed her two hands on either side of the blonde's face to take a good look at her. She was as beautiful as ever, with shoulder length loose curls framing her face, and prismatic green eyes accentuated by the deep purple cotton dress she was wearing belted by soft, black leather.

As Brooke searched Peyton's eyes she saw something different about her friend, something that felt akin to regret. She swept that from her mind for the time being, having more important things to worry about.

"So, you quit your job in L.A. to come back to 'Half-the-towns-relatedville', North Carolina? What's going on, Peyton? Not that I'm not happy to be seeing you again, and god knows I could use the break, but your phone call scared me a little." She lifted her brow at her friend waiting for an explanation.

"Let's get outta here, B. Davis. Before the paparazzi realizes you're here" Peyton smiled and widened her eyes sarcastically as she spoke, turning on her heel and throwing her arm around her friends shoulder as they walked towards the exit.

"I already dropped my stuff at the apartment. Brooke, I can't thank you enough for doing that...it's gorgeous" Peyton said, her voice thick with gratitude.

"Yeah, well the hotels in Tree Hill aren't exactly up to Brooke Davis standards and I wasn't sure how long we'd be staying." Brooke turned to look at her best friend "How long will we be staying, Sawyer?"

Peyton looked at her friend and tried to contain her smile, but it tugged at the corners of her mouth forcibly. "If things go the way I want? Forever." Brooke's hazel eyes narrowed at that response and just as she was about to speak Peyton piped in "Come on let's get your luggage to the apartment."

"Okay, P. Sawyer. But there's somewhere I wanna stop first."

* * *

A dark haired and handsome man with what can only be described as boyish good looks, sits at a huge glass topped desk in a large, modern office with a wall of windows behind him. A phone pressed between his cheek and shoulder, while he types away on his laptop.

"Yeah, hi…my name is Julian Baker, and I'm head of new development production at Beckett Studios in Los Angeles. Anyway, I'm really interested in the rights to one of your author's books. I'd like to discuss it in more detail, though. Is there any way you could you tell me how I might be able to get in contact with him?"

He was used to being able to charm what he wanted out of people, and he was grinning a million dollar smile into the phone hoping it would radiate through the receiver. He closed his eyes and smiled in triumph when he got the information that he needed from the reluctant receptionist. Scrawling a phone number and address down on a notepad quickly, he thanked her again and hung up.

Taking a deep breath, he stood and turned to look out his large office window down onto the large Los Angeles cityscape. Staring out onto the tall buildings and long lines of traffic, he lightly chewed the inside of his lower lip, as he always did when he was deep in thought about something. He stayed that way for a while before walking over to a large cherry wood shelf that housed what had to be hundreds of leather bound movie scripts; his accomplishments thus far. There were also a few dozen photos in frames scattered randomly on different shelves.

He focused on one in particular before he reached to pick it up gazing at it, transfixed by the image in front of him. It was himself sitting on a high backed barstool at his apartment, he was smiling widely and perched atop his lap with her arms hooked around his neck and her lips pressed to his cheek was a gorgeous, curly haired blonde. His large hand gripped at her shapely denim covered thigh.

Lost in the memory of that moment, he could almost feel her in the room with him. He smiled to himself before breathing out "Peyton. God, I miss you. We'll be together again soon enough…and this time, I swear I won't make the same mistake, I won't ever let you go."

In one swift movement, he pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his charcoal colored slacks, and without breaking his gaze from the photo in front of him he pushed two buttons and spoke into the receiver. "Courtney, I need you to get me on a plane to North Carolina. Tomorrow."

* * *

"Hales!", Lucas bellowed as he stepped inside the large, modern home of his best friend,"Haley, are you home?"

He was still holding the basketball from when he had set out to the river court earlier in the afternoon. Before her. Before that Comet drove back into his life, back into his town. He'd made it to the court, but there was no way he could focus for long enough to try to shoot any baskets. He sat on the sidelines for awhile, replaying that moment in his mind over and over trying to remember what she'd said, but all that he could remember was green eyes gazing up at him and being lost in them.

"In the kitchen, Luke!" the familiar voice of his best friend replied.

He walked in the direction it was echoing from and entered a huge kitchen with dark wooden cabinets and shiny granite countertops. Haley was standing in front of the open stainless steel refrigerator scanning it for something.

"If you're looking for Lindsey you just missed her" she said, turning around with two bottles of water in her hand silently offering one to him.

He nodded his head and she tossed one of the cold bottles towards him. "No, I actually wanted to talk to you." In honesty he had completely forgotten that Haley and Lindsey had met for lunch. The women had become quite good friends, bonding over their fondness for the brooding blonde, and it was nice that his girlfriend and his best friend got along so well. He'd been worried when he started dating Lindsey that it wouldn't be the case.

Especially since she'd been very fond of his last girlfriend.

"Okay, what's up?" she motioned for him to join her as she hopped up on one of the barstools in the kitchen.

"So…I saw Peyton earlier." His eyes remained fixed on his bottle of water refusing to meet hers which had widened significantly.

"Oh, wow." It was then that he looked up at her. She saw something in his eyes that she recognized immediately, and she could feel trouble brewing.

Haley listened intently as Lucas retold the story. Truthfully, she was unsure about how to feel. Haley loved Peyton; they had been friends since the 11th grade and although she hadn't spoken to her in a long time she would be happy to welcome back the fellow music-lover to Tree Hill. But, she had grown close to Lindsey, if she was honest Lindsey was the only real friend she had in the town, she was a wonderful girl and Haley knew Luke well enough to know that Peyton's return would inevitably affect his relationship with the attractive, book editor in one way or another.

Once he'd finished talking she pondered for a moment over how to respond to him.

"Luke, I'm gonna be up front with you and ask one question, which I will never ask again," he gulped nervously; waiting for the words he knew were coming. "Are you still in love with Peyton Sawyer?"

Just as he opened his mouth, the doorbell chimed loudly followed by several raps on the door. "Hold that thought," Haley said as she pointed at him in a silent warning not to move from his spot.

"I'm coming, "shouted the petite, dark haired woman. She pulled the front door open and was shocked to be greeted by an excitable, and familiar voice "Tutor mom!" Brooke shrieked as she pounced onto Haley wrapping her arms around her old friend.

"Oh my god, Brooke!" Haley returned the hug with enthusiasm. As she glanced over the bubbly brunette's shoulder she saw that she wasn't alone.

"And Peyton!" she exclaimed trying to feign a surprised tone as the blonde wrapped her arms around both Haley and Brooke in a group hug. They stood there like that in the spacious, wooden-floored foyer for a few moments, until they heard an intentional cough echo from somewhere close by in the house.

The three old friends broke apart, and Haley extended her arm out directing them deeper into the Scott home. "Come on in."

This was gonna get interesting, Haley thought to herself.


End file.
